DEV Community: Abdi Yussuf

A Comprehensive Guide to Publishing and Embedding Power BI Reports on the Web with IFrames

Abdi Yussuf — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 15:41:02 +0000

A Comprehensive Guide to Publishing and Embedding Power BI Reports on the Web with IFrames

In today’s data-driven world, organizations rely heavily on tools that transform raw data into meaningful insights. Power BI, developed by Microsoft, is one of the most powerful business intelligence tools for data visualization and reporting.

After building dashboards in Power BI Desktop, the next step is sharing them. In this guide, you’ll learn how to:

Publish a Power BI report
Generate an embed code
Embed it into a website using an iframe

What is Power BI Publishing?

Publishing means uploading your .pbix report from Power BI Desktop to the Power BI Service (cloud platform).

Once published, your report can be:

Shared online
Embedded into websites
Accessed from anywhere

🔹 Step 1: Create a Workspace

A workspace is where your reports and datasets live in Power BI Service.

Steps:

Go to https://app.powerbi.com
Log in
Click Workspaces → New workspace
Add a name and description
Click Save

Screenshot: Creating Workspace

🔹 Step 2: Publish Your Report

Steps:

Open your report in Power BI Desktop
Click Home → Publish
Sign in
Select your workspace
Click Select

✔ You’ll see: “Successfully published”

Screenshot: Publishing Report

🔹 Step 3: Access Report in Power BI Service

Steps:

Go to Power BI Service
Open your workspace
Click your report

Screenshot: Report in Service

🔹 Step 4: Generate Embed Code

Important: This method makes your report public.

Steps:

Open your report
Click File → Embed → Publish to web
Click Create embed code
Confirm
Copy iframe code

Screenshot: Generate Embed Code

Example IFrame Code

<iframe 
    width="800" 
    height="600" 
    src="https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=YOUR_REPORT_ID" 
    frameborder="0" 
    allowFullScreen="true">
</iframe>

Step 5: Embed in a Website

Example

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Power BI Report</title>
</head>
<body>

    <h2>Sales Dashboard</h2>

    <iframe 
        width="100%" 
        height="600" 
        src="https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=YOUR_REPORT_ID"
        frameborder="0"
        allowFullScreen="true">
    </iframe>

</body>
</html>

Explanation

The iframe allows your Power BI report to appear inside your website. Users can interact with filters, charts, and visuals directly.

Understanding IFrames

An iframe (inline frame) is an HTML element used to embed another webpage inside your webpage.

Benefits:

Easy to use
No backend required
Fully interactive
Works on any website

Secure Alternatives

Avoid Publish to Web for sensitive data.

🔹 Use instead:

Power BI Embedded (Azure)
Secure Embed

Limitations of Publish to Web

Public access
No authentication
Not suitable for confidential data

Best Practices

Use width="100%" for responsiveness
Keep height between 500–800px
Optimize your report before publishing
Add slicers for better interactivity
Use clear titles and labels

Real-World Use Cases

Portfolio projects
Business dashboards
Data storytelling
Reporting platforms

Key Insights

Publishing connects Power BI Desktop to the cloud
Workspaces help organize reports
IFrames simplify embedding
Best suited for public dashboards

Conclusion

Publishing and embedding Power BI reports is a crucial skill for modern data analysts. It allows you to transform your work into an interactive, shareable product.

By following this guide, you can:

Publish reports
Generate embed codes
Embed dashboards into websites

This makes your project not just an analysis, but a complete solution ready for real-world use.

How Excel is Used in Real-World Data Analysis

Abdi Yussuf — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 18:33:58 +0000

Introduction

When I first started learning Excel, I thought it was just a simple tool for typing numbers and doing basic calculations. But as I progressed to an intermediate level, I realized that Excel is actually a powerful tool used in real-world data analysis. Today, many organizations rely on Excel to make decisions, track performance, and understand data better.

In this article, I’ll explain what Excel is, how it is used in real life, and share some examples of features and formulas I’ve learned along the way.

What is Excel?

Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet application that allows users to organize data into rows and columns. It also provides tools for performing calculations, analyzing information, and creating charts.

The best part about Excel is that it is easy to start with, but it becomes more powerful as you learn advanced features.

How Excel is Used in Real-World Scenarios

Business and Finance

In businesses, Excel is used to track income, expenses, and budgets. For example, a company can record daily sales and calculate total revenue at the end of the month. This helps managers make better financial decisions.

Data Cleaning and Organization

In real life, data is often messy. Excel helps clean data using tools like:

Remove duplicates
Sorting
Filtering

Data Analysis and Reporting

Excel helps analyze data and generate reports. For example, a company can analyze sales data to identify which products are performing well.

Education and Research

Students and researchers use Excel to analyze survey results, calculate averages, and present findings clearly.
Features and Formulas I Have Learned

IF Function

The IF function helps make decisions in Excel.

Example:

=IF((B2>50) + (C2>50), "Pass", "Fail")

This formula checks if a student scored more than 50.

VLOOKUP

VLOOKUP is used to find data from a table.

Example:

=VLOOKUP(A2, A2:D4, 4, FALSE)

This helps retrieve information like employee department's using his/her ID.

Pivot Tables

Pivot tables summarize large datasets quickly.

For example, I can use a pivot table to calculate sum of salary by department.

Charts and Visualization

Charts make it easier to understand data visually.

Some charts I’ve learned include:

Bar charts
Pie charts
Line graphs

Sorting and Filtering

These features help focus on specific data.

Sorting arranges data (e.g., highest to lowest)
Filtering shows only selected data

Practical Example

Let’s say I am working with sales data in Excel:

I enter the data into a worksheet

I clean it by removing duplicates

I create a pivot table to summarize sales
I use charts to visualize trends

Personal Reflection

Learning Excel has really changed how I see data. Before, I used to look at numbers and feel confused. Now, I can organize data, analyze it, and actually understand what it means.

I’ve learned that data is not just numbers—it tells a story. Excel helps me find that story. It has also given me confidence, especially as I’m interested in moving into a more technical and data-focused career.

Conclusion

Excel is an important tool in today’s world. It is used in business, education, and many other fields to analyze and understand data.

As a student, learning Excel has been a valuable experience for me, and I look forward to learning more advanced tools in data analysis.